Longmont Mayor Brian Bagley to back 100% renewable-energy goal

Pledge comes with admission: 'I am not king' of city

A Longmont Power and Communications crew working to restore power near Colo. 66. and McCall Drive in May. (Lewis Geyer / Staff Photographer)

If You Go: Longmont City Council

What: The Longmont City Council's Tuesday night meeting is to include a mayoral proclamation supporting a 100 percent renewable-energy goal.

When: 7 p.m. Tuesday

Where: Civic Center Council chambers, 350 Kimbark St., Longmont

Further information: The full meeting agenda, including staff materials for the items up for consideration, can be accessed through the City Council's meeting agendas portal, tinyurl.com/yc52lz9c

If You Go: Platte River Power Authority Zero Net Carbon report

What: The Platte River Power Authority, the energy provider for Longmont, Loveland, Estes Park and Fort Collins, will present the results of a study of the PRPA's energy resources and the feasibility and costs of pursuing a zero net carbon energy resource.for those cities' electricity customers

Editor's Note: An earlier online version of this story gave an incorrect last name for Abby Driscoll, chairwoman of Sustainable Resilient Longmont. That has been corrected below.

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Longmont Mayor Brian Bagley on Tuesday is to proclaim his personal commitment to work with the city's municipal utility and its power provider toward achieving a goal of "a 100 percent clean, renewable electricity supply by the year 2030."

Bagley's proclamation, which he's scheduled to read during Tuesday night's City Council meeting, expresses his intent to work collaboratively with Longmont Power and Communications and the Platte River Power Authority board of directors "to continue diversifying" LPC's and PRPA's energy portfolio "and adding carbon-free energy" in that effort.

The mayor's proclamation stops short, however, of committing the current and future Longmont City Councils and Longmont Power and Communications to provide all of the city's municipal electric utility customers with energy from renewable-power, non-fossil-fuel sources by 2030.

"I am not king of Longmont," Bagley said on Friday.

He said he hoped, however, that the goal and ideas stated in his proclamation will be picked up by enough fellow council members that they might pass a council resolution supporting the proclamation's points and the 2030 renewable-energy target.

"It's a goal, and more importantly, it's an attainable goal. It's an achievable goal," Bagley said.

In October, the Sustainable Resilient Longmont organization unsuccessfully sought then-Mayor Dennis Coombs' signature on a proclamation committing the city to a renewable-sources energy goal.

Coombs declined to do so, in part because of what he said would be the probable higher expense that Longmont Power and Communications would have to pass along to its ratepayers to cover the costs of completing the final stages of transitioning away from carbon energy sources such as coal and natural gas.

Coombs told Sustainable resilient Longmont activists attending an Oct. 17 City Council meeting that while achieving 100 percent renewables was his own goal, he believed that accomplishing the final phases would be "extremely difficult and extremely expensive."

Coombs also questioned whether the technology will be available to achieve 100 percent renewable energy sources for Longmont and the Platte River Power Authority by 2030.

Sustainable Resilient Longmont members and supporters, though, have contended that wind and solar power will be cheaper than energy fueled by coal and natural gas and that there will be power storage capability available by then.

The proclamation Bagley is scheduled to issue on Tuesday night states that "it is critically important" for Longmont Power and Communications and the Platte River Power Authority "to be economically responsible" in continuing to work toward the 100 percent renewable-energy goal.

That's important, the proclamation says, "so the city can continue providing affordable energy to our most vulnerable residents, those on fixed incomes, including the elderly and working families to make ends meet."

Bagley's proclamation also says "the need for reliable and affordable energy to attract and retain local businesses and spur economic development is vital to our community's success in a highly competitive and increasingly global marketplace."

However, the proclamation state's Bagley's confidence "that technological advances will provide increasing opportunities to incorporate more renewable energy into Longmont's electric-generation resource mix without significantly impacting the affordability of that energy."

Bagley said he consulted with Longmont Power and Communications and Platte River Power Authority officials and the city manager's office in preparing and drafting his resolution and that he also provided a draft to Sustainable Resilient Longmont.

"Nobody lobbied me" to issue the proclamation, Bagley said. "I decided to do it before anybody asked."

He said, "I think everybody can agree that energy independence is a good thing," and that 100 percent renewable energy can be achieved without negatively impacting the environment.

Meanwhile, the Platte River Power Authority, the wholesale electricity generation and transmission provider for Longmont, Loveland, Estes Park and Fort Collins, is scheduled on Thursday afternoon to present the results of a study of PRPA's energy resources and the feasibility and production costs of pursuing a zero-net-carbon resource.

That 3 p.m. Thursday public town hall presentation of the study at the Hilton Fort Collins is also scheduled to be made to the Longmont City Council on Dec. 19.

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